Beauty, Mercy, Justice

Big Winter

The Ice Giants are clearly winning. This calls for drastic action: the White Witch must die.

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On the other hand, is there anything better, after a day in the cold, than a hot bath?

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Worst. Winter. Ever. I know, the first winter I carried mail, in Michigan, 1981-82, set all sorts of records for cold and snowfall. But I was 27 years old.

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Hopes for a preternaturally early spring were dashed by the approach of this latest snowstorm. But it isn’t too late to hope for a simply natural early spring. Certainly the cardinals have been singing heartily, and there have been lots of robins, hanging out in flocks and flitting about. And a friend in Harrison County, 100 miles to the east, saw a red-winged blackbird, said to be the foolproof harbinger of spring, a couple of weeks ago.

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On the other hand, no perennials have stuck their shoots out of the earth, not even tentatively. And who can blame them? This is no world for tender green beings, not at this point.

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I never thought I would say that 3 degrees was warm, but Friday morning it was 3, sunny, with no wind. On the other hand, Thursday was 3, with a 25 mile per hour wind. Really, with a sunny sky and no wind it can be 10 or it can be 20 below; it all feels the same. It only hurts when the wind blows.

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I must say I am impressed with my fellow letter carriers this winter. It has been hard on all of us and it would be entirely understandable if people were surly and short-tempered, but the mood in the office is upbeat and cheerful. Of course, our present management is friendly, not hostile, which makes a big difference. Thank God we do not have some of the supervisors this winter that we have had in the past. An evil boss can poison the whole workplace.

“But I was 27 years old.” Heh. Funny how much difference that makes. It has suddenly gotten much warmer here, a development which doesn’t give me much pleasure, as it wasn’t very cold before except for one week or so, and this reminds me that the oppressive heat will be returning and hanging around much longer than the cold.

I live IN Minneapolis, and it’s almost certain that this winter will be in the top 5 for “most days with subzero lows” since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. It’s been consistently 20 degrees below average since the first week in December – and average, in January, means highs around 20.